About the High School Huddle

Welcome to the Citizen-Times' constantly-updated blog for Western North Carolina high school sports. Features include breaking news, scores and stats, college recruiting updates and live blogs from some of the marquee games in WNC. Readers are encouraged to comment on posts, but personal attacks on current athletes, coaches and their families will not be tolerated and are subject to edit or removal at the moderator's discretion.

With more updates from the past 24 hours, here is the latest version of the Western North Carolina track honor roll. Coaches, get me your updates by Wednesday at 3 p.m.

WNC TRACK HONOR ROLL

Following are the season’s top performances recorded by Western Carolina track and field athletes and reported to the Citizen-Times. Coaches who would like to submit updates should contact Andrew Pearson at 232-5863 or apearson@citizen-times.com each Wednesday by 3 p.m.

Asheville High's Ethan Wallenius-Caldwell and the Cougars will play Tuscola on Wednesday at McCormick Field.

Asheville High and Tuscola players lined up one-by-one to have their photos taken Tuesday.

They will see those same head shots on the Jumbotron at McCormick Field on Wednesday night.

High school baseball has returned to the venerable ballpark for the first time since 2008 and both teams are going to get the full professional treatment for a 6 p.m. nonconference game.

Tickets are $5 apiece.

The Asheville Tourists are using Wednesday as a full-on dress rehearsal for Thursday’s home opener, meaning the high school teams will get be surrounded by all the usual personnel and promotions what would be used for a minor-league game.

Tourists president Brian DeWine even plans to zipline onto the field to deliver a gameball.

“It’s exciting that our kids are going to be privy to that kind of atmosphere,” Cougars coach Bill Hillier said.

“Since we’re not part of a tournament this week, this is the spring break treat for our kids. There’s no doubt that Tuscola is a good team and we’re excited about playing them.”

A true high school game has not been held at McCormick since 2008, which was the next-to-last year that the now-defunct Buncombe County tournament was held.

There have been summertime American Legion games since then.

Avery County and Mitchell will also play a Western Highlands Conference game at McCormick on April 27.

Special thanks to the Diamond Mine training center for this information and photo:

West Henderson Junior Lane Grant has been named The Dugout Club Player of the Week for his outstanding performances this past week. Grant played in 3 games hitting .667. Although all 4 hits were singles Grant made them count with 5 RBI’s and one walk and didn’t strike out at all in the three games. However, offensively is just half of the story. Grant showed his versatility by also excelling on the mound making his performances even more impressive. Grant was 2-0 with a 1.83 ERA and opponents only hit .258 against him. In his two games he only allowed 2 runs to lead powerful West Henderson to another successful week. Grant is coached by Brandon Ball.

Hendersonville state champion wrestler Rhett Hoy will be out for five months after having shoulder surgery on April 13.

Hoy was injured with 11 seconds to go in his final match Thursday at the National High School Coaches Association Wrestling Championships tournament in Virginia Beach, Va.

The Bearcats sophomore ended up placing sixth in his age division at 220 pounds to receive All-American honors for the second straight year at the tourney. Hoy is the reigning NCHSAA 1-A champion at 220 pounds and went 37-10 this past season.

Smoky Mountain Will Carpenter, left, has committed to play college basketball for Milligan.

Here is the most up-to-date list of Western North Carolina athletes who have committed or signed to play college sports. As of today, the list has grown to 105 names. Coaches, parents and athletes, if you know of anyone not listed, please contact me at apearson@citizen-times.com or 232-5863.

BASEBALL

Bryan Bussey, North Buncombe to Walters State

Hunter Donaldson, North Henderson to Brevard College

Colby Fox, North Buncombe to Campbell

Chanz Fritz, Franklin to Tuccoa Falls

Hunter Galloway, Brevard to Pikeville

Aaron Goforth, West Henderson to Brevard College

Todd Griffin, North Buncombe to Mars Hill

Katon Harwood, Reynolds to Clemson#

Tim McKeithan, Roberson to Brown

James Nevant, Roberson to Notre Dame

Brandon Norton, North Buncombe to Western Carolina

Chris Rice, Hendersonville to St. Andrews

Logan Sales, Brevard to Pikeville

Thomas Waddell, East Henderson to Catawba Valley

Zack Wiseman, Mountain Heritage to UNC Asheville

Justin Woods, Tuscola to UNC Asheville

BASKETBALL

Will Carpenter, Smoky Mountain to Milligan

Jessica Edmonds, Carolina Day to Liberty

Katrina Evans, Murphy to Young Harris

Jessica Farmer, Carolina Day to Elon

Jerome Hairston, Christ School to Towson

Shannon Hale, Christ School to Alabama*

Kaitlin Jackson, Carolina Day to Eckerd

Lindsay Simpson, Franklin to Western Carolina

Will Weeks, Christ School to UNC Asheville

FOOTBALL

Colt Austin, Erwin to Mars Hill

Ryan Bristle, Tuscola to Campbell

Rod Brown, Roberson to Emory & Henry

Darius Burton, Asheville to Mars Hill

Markece Cunningham, Polk County to Mars Hill

Seth Curtis, Murphy to Western Carolina

Mahcallum Duckett, Hendersonville to Winston-Salem State

Isaac Edwards, Mitchell to Mars Hill

Tristen Endaya, Hendersonville to Carson-Newman

Thomas Evans, Franklin to Richmond

Dustin Fender, Madison to Mars Hill

Corey Fisher, West Henderson to Mars Hill

Travis Frizsell, Owen to Lenoir-Rhyne

Dwan Hanshaw, Roberson to Campbell

Tysean Holloway, Asheville to Appalachian State

Justin Hughes, Mitchell to Mars Hill

Zack Hurwitz, Roberson to Brevard College

Drew Huskey, Swain County to Mars Hill

Colby Hyatt, Swain County to Mars Hill

D.J. Johnson, Hendersonville to Mars Hill

Chad Koehler, Asheville School to Presbyterian

Dalton Ledbetter, Madison to Mars Hill

Collin Lilly, North Buncombe to Charlotte

Cary Littlejohn, Polk County to Catawba

Denzel McKnight, Erwin to Fort Scott

A.J. McMinn, Hendersonville to North Carolina A&T

Blake Metcalf, Reynolds to Western Carolina

Jacob Painter, Polk County to UNC Pembroke

Tom Pawlowski, Smoky Mountain to Grand Valley State

Pancho Ramirez, Cherokee to Carson-Newman

Austin Rice, Mountain Heritage to Brevard College

Malik Risher, Asheville School to Presbyterian

Troy Self, Mitchell to Western Carolina

Michael Schill, Asheville School to Sewanee

Forrest Stamper, Cherokee to Carson-Newman

Jeremy Wolfe, Cherokee to Carson-Newman

Victor Yurco, Enka to Mars Hill

Carolina Day athletes Jessica Farmer (Elon basketball), Jessi Edmonds (Liberty basketball) and Jenny Sims (UNC Asheville volleyball) have signed to play college sports.

It was a remarkable comeback for Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) in the championship game of the ESPNHS National High School Invitational, but going to overtime to beat Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) was not enough for the Pilots to create a change at the top of the final POWERADE FAB 50.

Replacing a No. 1 team at the end of a rankings cycle requires an enormous set of circumstances. With No. 1 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) at 44-0 and with an 18-point win over La Lumiere (La Porte, Ind.), the only team that beat Findlay Prep during the season, it was too much for Findlay to overcome.

For coach Steve Smith and the program at Oak Hill, this year’s FAB 50 national crown is the seventh since 1993. The Warriors claimed their last one in 2007 with a 40-1 record. Their other No. 1 finishes have been in 2004 (38-0), 2001 (33-0), 1999 (31-0), 1994 (30-1) and 1993 (30-0).

Oak Hill was invited to play in the NHSI, but declined this year, citing the team’s recent tour of exhibition games in China.

Dorman has adopted a rising concept to where fishing off the side of a boat or standing on the banks of a pond hoping to hook the big one can now earn you a spot on a varsity team.

Within the last month, the Cavaliers became the first school in the county and the state’s 13th overall to start a fishing team. The S.C. High School League requires 16 teams before it can officially sanction any activity as a competitive sport and Dorman is hoping other local programs follow its lead.

“It’s just a great opportunity because there are limitations on kids as far as football, basketball, baseball or whatnot,” fishing team sponsor Joel Taylor said. “In those sports you have to have a strong arm or be a certain height, weight and those types of factors to be successful where in fishing you really reach across all the demographics. There are a lot of different options for kids in fishing that come with no limitations or restrictions.”

Smoky Mountain senior guard Will Carpenter has committed to play college basketball for Milligan.

Carpenter was named the Co-Western North Carolina Athletic Conference Player of the Year this past season after averaging 16.2 points, 4.7 assists and 3.0 rebounds a game for the WNCAC regular-season champion Mustangs.

Hendersonville senior pitcher Chris Rice has committed to play college baseball for St. Andrews.

Bearcats coach Mark Cook said that Rice will sign with the Division II school on Wednesday. In addition to his pitching, Rice came into this week with a .385 batting average and a team-high total for RBIs (eight).

Errors came back to bite the state-ranked McDowell softball team on Monday.

South Caldwell pounded out eight hits and and took advantage of two Titans errors to post a 6-4 nonconference win.

The Spartans jumped out to a 6-0 lead with two unearned runs proving to ultimately be the difference in the final score.

McDowell (9-2), which is No. 8 in the latest N.C. Softball Coaches Association poll, rallied for two runs in each of the final two innings. Holly Coker was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. King recruit Jordan Johnson went 1-3 with two RBIs. Kayla Long and Channing McKinney each hit triples.